The newly-enlarged Panama canal is a source of huge national pride for Panamanians, with thousands gathering on the shores of the Cocoli Locks to witness and cheer the occasion of its reopening.
The country’s identity has been shaped by the canal ever since the United States forced its independence from Colombia in order to make it possible.
Panamanians only got control of the waterway in 1999. Not everybody in Panama has benefited equally from Panama’s impressive economic growth during the past decade. One of every three Panamanians is poor, and the figure rises to more than half of those in rural areas.
Who all benefitted from the improved Waterway?
- Panama’s economy depends on the waterway and the industries built around it.
- Seattle, in the US northwest, became the technological hub it currently is thanks to the Panama Canal: By lowering costs it allowed massive amounts of timber produced there to be used on the US east coast.
- William Boeing was one of the big beneficiaries of the boom, he was able to use his profits in the timber trade to sustain a little aviation company. And the rest is history.
- The small Caribbean island of Barbados may be the biggest winner of the construction of the original Panama Canal than Panama or the USA, which provided a significant percentage of the workforce that built it.
Lots of money sent back home in remittances to Barbados turned Barbados into one of the Caribbean’s more important financial centres. And, while Panama currently is the 10th most unequal country in the world, Barbados is the 51st richest country in terms of GDP per capita.
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